Showing posts with label montebello. Show all posts
Showing posts with label montebello. Show all posts

Monday, June 27, 2011

Day 7 - Rockland, ON to Hawkesbury, ON

Hawkesbury, Ontario

Today was a 38 miler under relentless sunshine. They had lunch on the Quebec side of the river at the famous Fairmont Chateau Montebello, an enormous log structure made of red cedar (a few photos of it below).

They are staying at a public marina tonight on an island at Hawkesbury, Ontario. Hawkesbury is touted as the third most bilingual town in Ontario, with about 70% of its inhabitants being fluent in English and French, the two official languages of Canada. (West Nipissing is first with 73.4% followed by Hearst at 71%.) 89% of the population is made up of French speaking Franco-Ontarians.
Arrow points to island where they are staying
They are more than halfway from Ottawa to the St. Lawrence!

More tomorrow!

Fairmont Montebello, Quebec


Fairmont Montebello, Conference Hall


Lunch at Montebello on the Ottawa River (Brian)

Al at Montebello
June 27, Montebello, Quebec

We are having lunch at what is billed as the world's largest log cabin. It's big. This is the same place that Al pointed to on the map just yesterday and said, "we're not going there."

We went through the eight locks of Ottawa yesterday, like descending a grand staircase between the parliament and a cathedral down to the Ottawa River. We stopped on the other side, the French side, for sandwiches at Le Petit Episserie where they know what they're doing.

From there it was a long slog in the sun and I hit the wall at about 20 miles, with 10 still to go. Wasn't sure I would make it. We rowed nearly to sundown when Moe, the manager of a marina at Rockland allowed us to camp for the night. While others told us to keep going, Moe gave us a spot on the grass, showers, and a kitchen to warm up our Dinty Moore beef stew. Good, but a little heavy on the salt, Dinty.

The Ottawa River is broad and muddy, running through a wide flat Allen of farm land and low hills. Some of the farms come right down to the water. But there are few towns. Just mile after mile of rocky shoreline or swamp and rush grasses. We can hear many birds, but see few of them.

It's 2:10, and we have 18 miles to go. Al says were dawdling.